Stonehenge and Avebury: Oiling the Wheels of Avebury in print

Postcards to friends of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site

_______________________________________

On 13 May 1741, William Stukeley let it be known that “having been solicited, by friends who are pleased to approve of Stonehenge, to publish the further description of the temples of the druids in the Britannic Isles: … This volume will contain that other very extraordinary work of that sort, at Abury in north Wiltshire, … I propose to deliver the book in sheets sometime in the year 1742.”

Publishing was an expensive business, but Stukeley had recently inherited a half share in Doctor Rogers’s Oleum Arthriticum, a “Specifick oil for the gout”. Stukeley prepared the mixture, which was sold at 7s 6d – a highly expensive remedy in the 1740s.

B.E.

________________________________________________

This is part of a series of short “postcards” that anyone with something to share is welcome to submit, whether that is a digital snap and a “wish you were here” or something more involved. Please do join in by sending your postcards to theheritagejournal@gmail.com